


Joy to the World

by pocketmouse



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Christmas, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-21
Updated: 2008-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-30 05:34:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/328272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocketmouse/pseuds/pocketmouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone has forgotten about Christmas. Can Ianto fix it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Joy to the World

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta, XT

Ianto liked the street he lived on. It was quiet, mostly full of older couples, or business folks too busy working to party on the weekends. At least that was the impression he always received when he had time enough to be there.

That being the case, it wasn't until he reached the coffee shop that he realized something was wrong. He couldn't quite tell what it was at first; it was early and he was still functioning on autopilot. But as he drove away, it began to click over. It was late December, a fact he kept forgetting (working for Torchwood tended to mess with one's sense of time), but the streets were bare. None of the showy decorations that usually decorated streetlamps and telephone poles, nothing in storefront windows. There was no sign of Christmas decorations.

Ianto frowned. It was unlikely that the council had passed an ordinance against decorations, but he couldn't think of anything else. It was a relief to see some of the gaudier decorations gone, but it didn't make much sense. He dismissed it, though, in favor of worrying about more pressing things, like whether Jack was going to have to go down to London for Christmas, or whether Owen was going to try and feed Gwen's attempts at fruitcake to the Weevils again.

But the Hub was oddly quiet as well. They never decorated much, too much chance of something going wrong because of it, but the quietly tasteful tree always went up around December first, and disappeared by January twelfth. But it wasn't there -- no sign of it or anything else.

"What happened to the Christmas tree?" he asked Jack as he brought him his morning coffee.

Jack took the coffee with a confused look. "There's a tree in the Hub?"

"No..." Ianto said slowly. "The _Christmas_ tree."

"Is that like an Xbox?" Jack asked.

"That's not very funny, Jack, you'd better put it back before Gwen gets in, she'll throw a fit."

Jack shook his head. "Ianto, I really don't know what you're talking about."

He frowned. Jack really didn't look like he did. "Christmas, big holiday at the end of the year?"

"You mean New Year's."

"No, just before that. Religious holiday. So big it's become more commercial than religious," he said, cutting off Jack's argument about 20th century religion.

"I still don't recognize it," Jacks said, obviously dismissing it from his head. "But strange trees shouldn't be showing up in the Hub. Maybe it got put in Owen's greenhouse."

Ianto nodded, escaping out to the kitchenette, unable to fathom what kind of joke Jack might be up to.

"Owen," he tried, wandering by the Medical Bay even though he no longer needed to give Owen any coffee, "have you moved the Christmas tree?"

"Why would I do that?" Owen asked without looking up from the scope.

"Never mind," Ianto said, and continued on with his duties. It was probably nothing.

It was _not_ nothing. Gwen and Tosh had no idea what he was talking about either, and there was no way Gwen would drop her talk of Christmas plans just for a joke. The first chance he got, Ianto found his way down to the cells, where Owen was currently trying to get the Weevils to actually tell him something intelligible. So far the man had had no luck, just 'indigestion,' however that worked for the undead. Ianto didn't want to know.

"Owen, none of them know anything about Christmas," he said.

"Of course they don't, they're Weevils."

"Owen."

"And that way we don't have to buy anything for them, either." He was staring at the Weevil intently. The thing has its nose practically pressed to the glass, but was passive at least, like it was trying to soak in Owen's presence. It was disgusting.

"Owen, I'm serious. Neither Jack or Gwen knew what I'm talking about when I mentioned Christmas this morning."

"Does this mean we don't have to do that Secret Santa any more?" Owen asked mildly. "Kind of stupid with only five of us."

"We've still got that formaldehyde," Ianto warningly. "Didn't you notice anything on your way in? There's no decorations out on the street, nothing in the shops -- the radios have stopped playing seasonal music."

"I haven't left the Hub in a week," Owen said, with an edge to his voice.

That stopped Ianto for a moment. He didn't know what to say to that -- he didn't _know_ that, how did he not know that? Owen had less reason than most to go back to his flat, but Ianto never expected him to stick around the Hub 24/7, even if Owen maintained they were trying to do that to him.

"Okay," he said. "But it's true. And I don't know what it means, but we need to figure it out." He quietly retreated, leaving Owen still staring down a Weevil, who moaned and cowered through the glass.

\----------

Maybe it's because there was no Christmas to cause human madness, but there was a considerable lull in alien and Rift activity as well. Jack went out with Gwen to hunt down a couple Weevils, Tosh and Ianto went out briefly to pick up a few minor artifacts the Rift had dropped, and the Minister of Culture nearly had a run-in with a Kaltorp, but that was really the extent of the excitement at the moment. Ianto was grateful for the lull, though, and put as much effort as he could into figuring out what the hell was going on.

He spent most of that day periodically reminding them all about Christmas, until he started getting too many odd looks. Then he gave up and did some research, trying to figure out when it started (sometime between 2 am, when he went to bed, the Christmas lights of his neighbor's window creating an amber glow through his window, and 6:15, when he woke up -- presumably, or 6:30, when he left the flat).

He kept trying to convince Owen to help him, but Owen repeated the fact that he didn't care, and eventually enlisted the help of Jack, actually calling him on the phone and telling him Ianto was hallucinating. Jack was back in the Hub inside fifteen minutes. Gwen said he nearly took off without her.

Jack took Ianto up to his office, and had him sit down and go through all of it, but it was to no avail. Jack didn't even seem to grasp that something was wrong -- he was more concerned about Ianto than anything else. Ianto himself was trying to think up new punishments for Owen, now that all the food-related ones were gone. Because this was Owen's fault. He tried again with Jack, trying a slightly different tactic.

"Jack, do you not remember last year? Where they evacuated most of London, and the spaceship nearly crashed into the palace? Or the year before, with the Christmas star?"

Jack shrugged. "There was an evacuation, but that had nothing to do with us. And the Racnoss ship last year -- the _Winter_ Star -- that was just coincidence that it was the same time."

Ianto narrowed his eyes. "And the year before that?"

"The Guenevere One incident? Look, Ianto, it was headed to _Mars_. There are only certain calculated launch windows that your primitive technology can use." Jack spread his hands. "I don't see what you're on about." He stood and came around the desk, leaning against it with one hip, putting a hand on Ianto's shoulder. "Look, you've been taking on a lot of extra work lately. You're getting too worked up over this." He rubbed his hand up and down the length of Ianto's arm. "Go get some rest. If you're right, we've still got a week, don't we?"

Jack's smile wasn't as reassuring as he probably meant it to be.

\----------

It wasn't like Ianto's heart sped up at the thought of Christmas or anything. It was more about figuring out what the hell was going on than getting Christmas back. He wasn't about to run around like the Christmas fairy making everyone's heart glow with goodwill to man and peace on earth. He just wanted to get things back to normal, even if that meant listening to the irritating synth-pop version of Little Drummer Boy every time he went into the coffee shop.

He didn't even know why he could remember Christmas when no one else could, except Owen, whose refusal to help bothered him as well. He'd thought Owen's antagonistic behavior towards him had other reasons, but the thought of Owen not helping with an actual problem made him wonder if something else was going on. And Owen was outright balking.

"I thought London was supposed to get the weird shit at Christmas," he protested. "What'd we do to get this?"

"Maybe if there's no Christmas, we won't get any 'weird shit,'" Ianto replied, mocking Owen's word choice. "Owen, if Jack forgot about something like electricity or how to drive, you'd be worried, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, but he hasn't. Come back to me when you have a problem I can actually solve."

It was like talking to a sarcastic brick wall. "Well I guess I might as well go home, then. Won't be having your company for a while." Owen flipped him the bird, but Ianto was already on his way out.

\----------

"Gwen, you're Catholic, right?" Ianto asked. He was trying the individual approach again.

Gwen shifted a bit. "Well, sort of. I mean, I send my mum and dad a card at Easter, but that's about it. I haven't gone to church in years."

"Well, what about Christmas?" he prodded. "Feast day for Christ's birth? Miraculous birth?"

Gwen frowned. "I ...suppose," She smiled at Ianto. "But Ianto, really, you can't expect me to remember every religious holiday. Like I said, I haven't been in years."

He smiled, acknowledged this was true, and moved on. Owen was giving him the stink-eye from across the room, but he ignored him.

He'd found a CD from last year's Christmas party shoved in a box in the supply closet, and put it on, quietly, as he worked. Maybe to jog the others' memories, maybe so he didn't feel that he was going crazy. After a moment, he realized Tosh was humming along. Not behind, or haltingly, but familiarly, offhand. "You know this piece?" he asked, casually.

Tosh nodded, then stopped to think. "Not sure from where, though." She smiled. "Probably just one of those pieces you hear on the radio a lot, though. It's lovely. What's it called?"

"It's Handel's _Messiah_."

She blinked, and looked surprised. "Oh. Well, I suppose I must have heard it on the radio, then."

Ianto smiled at her. "I suppose so."

Owen walked by, flicking the volume down, and Ianto had to lean across the length of his desk to reset it, a little higher than it was before.

\----------

Ianto wasn't looking forward to starting all over again the next day, but he was _certainly_ not prepared for none of the team (except Owen, still) to even remember that there had been something wrong the day before. At least it meant that this time he could hopefully avoid the sympathetic looks from Jack, but if he was stuck in a version of _Groundhog's Day_ as well as whatever else was going on, Ianto wasn't going to wait for the fiftieth loop to go crazy. He'd do that now, thank you.

Owen's behaviour assured him that he wasn't caught in a time loop, but he shut himself in Jack's office anyway. Part of him wondered if he should have made a chart. The rest of him was still trying to comprehend that this was even happening.

"What about Dickens?" he asked Jack. "Surely you remember Charles Dickens -- _A Christmas Carol_? Ebenezer Scrooge?" Ianto might have been getting a bit desperate now, he was about ready to recite the opening lines. (Owen was dead: to begin with.)

"Well, I never met Dickens, but --" he stopped. "But I remember..." Jack trailed off again, then shook his head and smiled brightly. "Sorry, nevermind. What were you saying?"

Ianto could only stare at him in despair. This wasn't happening.

After the Dickens fiasco, Ianto went to find Owen again. Owen was, predictably, in the Medical Bay. He related the conversation hurridly, hoping to actually convey some of the importance to the other man. "Look, Owen I don't care if you want to be miserable for Christmas, but at this rate, there isn't going to be a Christmas to be miserable _over_!" He slapped his hand against the wall, emphasizing his point.

Owen stared at his hand, frowning vaguely. "I don't --" He shook his head and glared at Ianto. "Leave me out of it."

Ianto glared right back. "I can't believe you're being this petty, Owen."

"I'm not being _petty_ , Ianto, you're the one who's making shit up! Who the hell put you up to this, was it Gwen? She couldn't pull this off on her own, I'll bet she got Jack to --"

"Jesus Christ, Owen, you think I'm _making this up_?" he cracked, voice rising to a shout. Without Owen, it was just him -- "This isn't some Christmas special, and I wasn't lying when I said you can be miserable for Christmas." Well, maybe a little. "If you don't believe me, then why don't you come see." Owen's eyes widened comically as Ianto reached over and yanked at his arm, dragging him up the steps of the bay.

As soon as he realized Ianto wasn't letting go, Owen's struggles ceased. He simply followed along, reluctantly, but with no real resistance. It wasn't until Ianto actually had to push him out the door that he realized that Owen was actually afraid to go outside. That stopped him short, just over the threshold of the information center. For a moment, neither of them moved.

"Owen?" he asked at last, quietly.

Owen started, and turned around. "I -- Yeah, okay," he said, and fled back down to the Hub. Ianto was left with the empty night, feeling partly stunned and wholly confused.

\----------

"Ianto." He looked up. Jack was standing in the doorway to the archives, arms crossed, his weight on his hip against the jamb. He had a wicked gleam in his eye.

"Jack?"

"I couldn't help noticing," Jack said slowly, a leading edge to his voice, "that you've been spending an awful lot of time down here in the archives, and with Owen." He raised an eyebrow.

Owen again. The doctor had disappeared, and Ianto was content to leave him be for the moment. "It _is_ my job, sir," he replied calmly.

Jack stepped forward, well inside his personal space. "But with Owen? Owen can hardly be bothered to archive his own work, let alone utilize the archives."

Quick thinking failed Ianto. He wasn't up for another round of interrogation. "We're planning his birthday party."

A frown crossed Jack's face. "His birthday's not for two months."

"Yes," said Ianto hastily. "And Owen's being incredibly picky. I'm not certain I'm going to have enough time to get everything set."

Jack gave him a look that said he wasn't buying it, but was willing to let the mystery lie. Or, more likely, was going to try and ferret it out of Owen the second Ianto's back was turned.

"Jack," he said, turning serious, "do you know what's going on with Owen?"

Jack shook his head, mood changing as well. "It's nothing new," he said. "He'll be fine." He cast his gaze out the door, distracted. Ianto got the impression he was trying to convince himself as much as anything else. "Give him time," he offered with a small smile.

Time, Ianto thought, and something to do.

\----------

They were sitting outside on the Plass, steam rising from Ianto's coffee and his breath, but nothing from Owen. It looked strange, especially when Owen talked, but Ianto tried to ignore it. Owen had his shoulders hunched up around his ears, like he was expecting to be scolded at any moment, but he was actually outside, and with no complaints.

"Okay, okay," Owen said. "I guess there's something more to this than just your normal weirdness." He tapped the printouts in his hands. "First off, this isn't even local, this is worldwide. The American market is going quietly nuts trying to figure out the sudden sales increase in the last month, and why it's stopped. Japan too. I couldn't even find anything when I searched the internet. Got about 600,000 hits on Google, and they were pretty much all religious sites. No one asking where their Christmas goose went, or even mentioning they found a bunch of electronics and children's toys hidden in the back of their closet." He frowned. "Even NORAD's site was down."

Ianto frowned. "That Santa tracking site Jack's always complaining about?"

Owen nodded. "Tosh and I had midnight shift one year on Christmas, and Tosh was pissy or bored or something, because she decided to hack the site -- just changing a couple algorithms,  
making his travel rate a little more realistic, she said." He waved a hand. "But the point is, she had to _hack_ it -- not hard for her, but it was still on a secure server like everything else run by the American military. For that to be gone too, this is more than just hallucinations or people forgetting something."

Ianto nodded. That much was obvious, but it was still a startling revelation of fact. "Yes, but what can we do about it? We need to find out what's causing it."

Owen shrugged. "If it was just Cardiff, or the UK, I'd say maybe something local, like in the water supply or the food, but it's worldwide." Ianto was surprised to feel such relief as Owen grew more serious. It wasn't just him, he wasn't crazy. "It's probably a transmission of some kind. Normally we'd ask Tosh."

Ianto shrugged back. "Well, we can still ask her. And if not, UNIT's got more powerful equipment than we do. If she can get us into their systems, we could look through there as well."

Owen raised an eyebrow. "Or we could ask Martha."

\----------

"Martha Jones."

"Martha, how are you?" Ianto said with false cheer. Owen rolled his eyes. "We haven't heard from you in a while, and Jack was wondering if you'd be coming down for Christmas?"

"Christmas?" she said, but not in the vague way people had been saying it of late. Or even the familiar way Ianto and Owen said it. No, she said it with some surprise, and a bit of trepidation. He was instantly on alert.

"Yes, Christmas. I know it's a bit late notice, and you'll probably want to spend Christmas Day with your family, if you're not on London alert, but we'd love for you to drop by if you have time."

"Yes, I'll be pretty busy, but I'll really try." She was obviously winging it -- most people probably couldn't tell, but Ianto was an expert on winging it, and anyway, if Martha's family knew about Christmas when nobody else did, that would be a little odd. "Listen, Ianto, I really would like to stay and chat, but I'm about to leave on a mission to Naples -- maybe I could call you back after my flight?"

"Yes, of course, not a problem," he said, shooting Owen a look. Owen nodded back. "Call us whenever you get a chance; I'm sure Jack would love to hear from you."

"Sure thing, Ianto. Bye."

"Goodbye." The phone call ended with a final click.

"Well, that was certainly enlightening."

"Does she know what's going on?"

"Possibly a little too well, I'd say. Looks like we'll have to rely on Tosh for this after all."

"How much can she help if she doesn't know what's going on?"

Ianto thought briefly. "Have you talked to her at all?"

Owen frowned at him from across the table. "Tosh isn't going to see her family. Says she's too busy, there's no time to take off for no reason. Maybe for New Year's."

Ianto frowned. He knew she'd been excited to have the chance to see them -- she didn't visit nearly as often as she wanted to, and her last chance had been cancelled due to -- well, unforeseen time travel. "I'm sure she can at least get us into their databases. Though we should try and see if we can jog her memory," he added slowly, an idea coming to him.

"Why do we need to tell her what it is we're doing?"

"Well, she's hardly going to help us if she doesn't remember."

"Sure she will."

"She won't be able to help us nearly as well as if she knew what was going on."

"Fine, but how are we going to get her to remember? We have no idea how to break this thing."

"In everything I've managed to find on similar devices, the small-scale ones, if you can present the person with incontrovertible evidence, or make them confront the thing long enough, it'll break the 'programming,' so to speak." Ianto crossed his arms over his chest.

"What've we got? Tosh certainly isn't very religious, and I don't know if she's even Christian."

Ianto had to roll his eyes at Owen's bullheadedness. "Owen, what's the one thing Tosh mentions every time the Christmas party comes up?"

Owen shrugged. "Does it come up that often?"

"Well, no, but still, you know what she seems to remember best?" Owen shrugged again.

"The fact that you kissed her."

Owen scowled, obviously not getting it, and Ianto stared him down, until his eyes widened. "Wait, you're not saying you want me to kiss her? You really think that'll make her remember _Christmas?_ " Owen said it with all the scorn in the Northern Hemisphere.

"Owen, she has a crush on you the size of a small houseboat."

Owen looked even more nonplussed. "A small houseboat?"

Ianto nodded. "Yes. A nice one, though. The large houseboats were too expensive."

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head or something out there?" The situation might be getting to him, it was true. Or maybe it was the giddy relief of finally not feeling alone. "Look, I'm not going to kiss her just because you think it'll help her remember Christmas. That's not fair to Tosh."

Ianto was surprised by Owen's point, and a little ashamed that he hadn't thought of that himself. "All right," he submitted. "We'll try it without it."

\----------

Ianto was about ready to give this whole thing up for a fool's errand. If no one knew Christmas was missing, was it really so bad? He banged his head against the steel support beam gently, as Owen tried to negotiate with Tosh.

"Come on, Tosh, I promise, we're not just trying to break into UNIT to pay them back for the supply requisition cock-up. Though I still think we should."

Tosh held firm, arms crossed over her chest. "Look, the last time I left the two of you alone on the secure server, we nearly got overrun by beings from the eighth dimension."

"It was just the once!"

"No. Especially when it's something that you're going behind Jack's back about."

Ianto spoke up. "We're not deliberately going behind his back. He just -- doesn't know what's going on." Well, that didn't sound suspicious. "Look, something's wrong, and he can't remember it, which is why we need to check --" he broke off with a sigh. Maybe he could hack into it, if he tried hard enough.

"If Jack can't remember it, maybe he's not supposed to. Like those two days."

Ianto felt briefly nauseous, like he always did when he thought about the two days in March he couldn't remember. He shook his head. "No, this is --"

"This is important, Tosh," Owen broke in. "Christmas."

She frowned, her nose wrinkling up a little. "Christmas?" she asked, as if she'd heard the word before, but couldn't place it.

"Christmas. We have a party every year, have a bit of fun."

Her eyes were getting wider now, but she frowned again, and shook her head. "I don't -- I don't know."

"Come on, Tosh." Owen's voice was soft, and he put one hand on her shoulder, drawing her a little closer to him. She came easily, tension loosening, and when Owen kissed her, it was the same relaxed, casual kiss he'd given her before, though Ianto only vaguely remembered it happening.

She sank into the kiss readily. Ianto would have thought Owen was a dirty kisser, and he felt a bit wrong for watching, but they were in a bit of a hurry. It actually looked like a very nice kiss -- a bit more than friendly, and it was somehow obvious that Owen liked Tosh, in whatever sense of the word. Ianto really didn't know what Owen's problem was -- other than the fact that he was dead. Before that.

Owen broke away slowly. "See? Christmas, yeah?"

Tosh looked a bit starry-eyed. "Christmas," she repeated, with a bit of wonder, and a definite tone of recognition.

"Yeah," Owen said, and Ianto had to look away, pretend to give Tosh some privacy, because he knew Owen was going to foul this up. "Also known as about the 300th time I proved my own idiocy. You remember Christmas now?"

Ianto turned back just in time to see Owen's hand come down from Tosh's cheek as she nodded. "Yeah, I -- oh god, did I really spend the last three days forgetting Christmas?" She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, worried, and no longer noticing how close to Owen she was standing.

"Everyone has," Ianto said, reminding them of his presence. "We think UNIT might know something about it, but Martha wouldn't say anything. Do you think you can get us into their systems?"

Tosh nodded. "Of course. Let's see what we can do." She turned at once to her station, all business. Owen followed easily, and Ianto gave up and followed behind, still no idea what exactly was going on between those two.

\----------

It was late, nearly two in the morning, when Jack appeared again in the door to the archives.

"Well, first Owen, now Tosh. You get Gwen in on your little act, I might start to worry I've got another mutiny on my hands."

"Jack," Ianto said warningly. It wasn't a very funny prospect.

Jack smiled a little more. "I trust you -- I'm just not used to having employees who can keep secrets from me."

Ianto crossed the floor to him, standing close. "I'm not trying to keep secrets, Jack. You just can't seem to remember."

Jack took his hand, rubbing slow circles into the back of it. "This Christmas thing?" he asked, only mildly curious -- unlike last week, all warm cheer and teasing about when he could 'unwrap' his presents.

"You remember anything?" Ianto asked, too tired to be hopeful, but this is the first time Jack had brought it up on his own.

Jack shook his head. "No, but it's all over my work notes." Jack didn't seem too concerned about it, though. Probably because he didn't remember missing it -- when they'd lost two days, Jack had been hounding down the details until he'd found a handwritten note from himself telling him to drop it.

"You okay?" Jack asked, cupping Ianto's cheek with one hand. "You've seemed pretty down this week."

Ianto shrugged, leaning into the touch a little, and Jack drew him in like he knew he would, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, pressing a kiss to his temple. He just wanted to forget for a little while himself. "I'll be fine once I get this Christmas thing sorted," he said, trying to sound casual.

"Well, don't wear yourself out doing it," Jack said, like he was talking about paperwork. He gave Ianto's shoulder a warm rub. "Come to bed," he invited. "It's late." 2 am was hardly late for them, but Ianto took the statement for the invitation it was, and leaned in to kiss Jack, placing a hand on his hip. Jack reciprocated, his free hand sliding around to Ianto's lower back, drawing him closer.

Part of Ianto was desperately tired -- he'd been up late the last three days, trying to convince Owen to actually help him figure out what the hell was wrong, trying to figure out all this on his own, on top of his usual work. But being with Jack was always so energizing -- he was always just so _alive_ , full of passion, be it anger or love -- that Ianto felt some of the spirit coming back into him, and he kissed Jack hungrily, the passion familiar and comforting in its own right.

Jack being Jack, business stayed outside the bedroom -- that didn't mean he wouldn't sleep with the enemy, or to get information, but it wouldn't change the pleasure he'd derive from it, or give in return. Once Ianto had started to understand that about Jack, it became easier for him to drop his own guilt and just revel in being with Jack. Here, now, he could stop worrying about this damn problem -- leave it to Owen and Tosh (Tosh, thank god) in the meantime and just have something for _himself_ \-- and it felt so damn good.

Jack insinuated a thigh between his own, idly pressing his erection against Ianto's hip, his tongue still exploring Ianto's mouth. Ianto put one hand to the back of Jack's neck, keeping him in place, stroking roughly against the grain of his hair. Jack hummed a little in pleasure at the move, shifting his own grip to cup Ianto's ass, his erection becoming more insistent.

Tosh's voice over the comms interrupted them. "Ianto, I've found something."

Ianto, drew back with a sigh. "I appreciate you trying to 'comfort' me --" his lips twitched, amused. "-- but we do need to actually solve this." He took his hands off Jack's chest reluctantly, tugging his waistcoat back into place. Jack let him, pouting a little, lip drawn down enticingly. "Tosh has been looking into UNIT. We think they're involved."

Jack stepped back, looking grave. "Are you sure? Ianto, UNIT --"

Ianto tugged Jack's hand. "Come on."

Tosh was sitting at her workstation, all her monitors active. Ianto recognised one as UNIT's database, and the twisting blue patterns of their own Mainframe. The others he didn't recognise.

"You remember the Archangel network?" Tosh asked, looking excited.

"Yeah," Jack said, looking a bit grim. "UNIT was going to take that down."

She shook her head. "Well, they didn't. It's still up and running, and now it's transmitting a new signal." With a click of her mouse, a new window popped up, displaying an audio waveform. "Owen wouldn't be affected by it, of course." Tosh glanced back at Ianto, who shrugged. He was still in the dark as to why he'd not been affected. "Tone deaf?" he suggested.

Jack leaned in, his hands resting on either side of Tosh, who didn't seem to notice. "Those bastards," he muttered. "What the hell do they think they're doing; they don't even know how this technology works. That's always been their problem -- well, at least since the nineties." he pulled back, frowning furiously. "Tosh, see if you can't figure out how to reverse this. Shut down Archangel for good. Ianto, pull everything relevant from the archives. Let's see if we can't get this shut down."

It was silly, but Ianto felt instantly relieved. Jack was willing to help, even if he didn't entirely know what was going on.

"Where's Owen? If he managed to fix Tosh, maybe whatever he did will work on Gwen and me. Archangel has a psychological component, if he's managed to tap into that --"

Ianto pulled a face. "I don't -- Tosh was just kind of ...luck. Fixing anyone else like that?" He shook his head. "Not going to happen."

\----------

Standing in her living room, arms crossed over her chest, Gwen shook her head. "I still don't understand, Ianto, what are you doing?"

What Ianto was doing was digging through Gwen's old home videos. They weren't exactly up to his standard of labeling ('Rhys & I,' 'me and Rhys' 'Rhys' mates at the game' 'Mum's visit') but with only a bit off guesswork he was able to find the tape he was hoping would be there - 'Xmas - 07.' He handed it to Gwen.

She took it, frowning curiously. "What's this?"

"It's, ah, your first Christmas you spent living together, I think," Ianto replied, unsure about the year. Either way, it would suit his purposes. He put it in the player and let Gwen watch, trying to tune it out himself. He really didn't need to know that much about Gwen's personal life, especially if she really hadn't shared it on her own.

Also, he was of no mind to see Rhys Williams with his pants off.

\----------

Jack wasn't in his office when Ianto returned, so he left Gwen there on the phone again to Martha, and went digging into the archives.

The archives were massive, but hardly unending, and really, aside from an odd incident in 1869, Cardiff was hardly ever busy at Christmas. That was London's duty. Still, he managed to dig up a few references here and there, and that beryllium sphere that Jack always said looked like a Tiffany's Christmas ornament.

Depositing these in the briefing room didn't take long at all, and by now his curiosity was getting the better of him, so he managed to convince himself that he was just checking in on Jack for the other man's sake. He was surprised, though, to discover him in the medical bay, talking in serious, quiet tones with Owen. He thought he'd escaped without notice, but nonetheless Jack wandered into the briefing room about eight minutes later, just enough time that he could have come from anywhere in the Hub, if pressed.

"Anything exciting?" Jack asked, picking up the sphere and studying it. It glided gently over his fingers, its frictionless surface allowing it to skim gracefully over his hand as he toyed with it. Its mechanism was powered primarily through body heat, but Jack was the only one with a dextrous enough touch to really get it to perform. Now. Owen hadn't been too bad.

He shook off the thought. "Not really. Nothing ever happened in Cardiff around this time of year. We have London's records, that was where the main action tended to take place, even when it led to worldwide events." He shook his head. "It just doesn't make much sense. Like you said, it's probably largely coincidence. The aliens don't care about Earth's holidays."

Jack hmm'd a little. "Well, if you're trying to get something, the advantage of barging in during a culture's acknowledged peace time is a pretty good one." He frowned a little. "It is a peace holiday, right? I mean, it's not like Guy Fawkes Day or the Festival of the Eleven Sails, right?"

Ianto nodded. "It's supposed to be, though with the crowds at the malls these days, it can be hard to tell."

"Gwen seems happy to remember," Jack said, and it took Ianto a moment to realize that his tone seemed -- wistful? Maybe Christmas hadn't always been so bad for Jack as he'd thought. He didn't know what to say. Jack hadn't even been there last year at Christmas, and the year before that -- well, that was before everything else.

\----------

Tosh had figured out how to stop the signal, but it was Gwen who brought up the problem. "So we can stop the signal, sure, but can we stop UNIT? I mean, they outnumber us incredibly, and just because we stop them here doesn't mean they won't try something else again."

Owen took his pen out of his mouth and nodded. "And what are we going to say happened?"

Jack shook his head. "Hopefully they'll be too busy dealing with whatever catastrophe does come up to worry about that. And I doubt too many people know what actually happened -- very few people even knew what Archangel was capable of. They won't be able to try something like this again."

"Oh, goody, we're just going to _wait and see_ ," Owen mocked.

"I didn't say that," Jack prevaricated. "But I think it'll be easier to flush out who exactly is behind this once we have the rest of the problem sorted out. So let's just get step one taken care of before we go on to worrying about step two, all right?" He sobered. "Have you managed to get a hold of Martha again?" he asked. "Even if she can't say anything, she must be trying to give us a clue somehow. It's not like her."

Gwen spoke. "I did. She can't help us."

"Or she won't," Owen broke in.

Gwen frowned at him, then looked away. "It didn't sound like she was afraid to, necessarily, but we've talked twice now and nothing else has happened, so I think it's safe to say she's not actively trying to stop us, either."

Jack nodded. "Right. Owen, you give her one last try. Then we should move before anything else changes."

Things moved quickly after that. Gwen spent the SUV ride trying to jog Jack's memory, and at the same time reinforcing their own, though somehow that translated as playing 'classic' Christmas music until Owen leaned in from the back seat and threw the CD out the window. Then the trip just devolved into the usual arguing, though with some new lines about the ability of the undead to drive passenger vehicles. Ianto and Tosh exchanged weary glances, and returned to being the only _responsible_ people in the vehicle, glad when the trip was over.

UNIT had multiple headquarters all over the world, but London was the closest and, according to Jack, the most influential. Ianto supposed that was the Doctor's influence talking, but that wasn't the only threat UNIT dealt with. Still, what with London being the Christmas target, it did make sense. They set up camp an almost discreet distance down the street, settling down to being serious at last. Sometimes Ianto still didn't understand the thrill of the adrenaline rush the others felt, but as long as they were all there at the end of the day to give him a migraine, he didn't really mind the stress.

At a word from Jack, Tosh started the program to stop the signal and take down Archangel. No one was sure exactly what would happen, and they waited in breathless anticipation, but everything stayed calm. Jack flicked through the radio stations, until one by one they flickered to life with the same carols that Owen had just tossed out the window, and he snapped it off.

"You remember anything?" Ianto asked.

"I still don't understand why you'd lick a frozen metal pole," Jack replied, wrinkling his nose.

" _I_ still don't understand how you've been on this planet for hundreds of years and still don't understand popular culture," Owen replied, speaking for them all. Ianto let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, and his phone rang.

"Please tell me that was you," Martha's voice came across the line.

"Are you all right?" he asked, putting her on speaker.

"I'm fine -- everyone's fine, most people don't seem to have noticed that anything happened in the first place -- but the colonel's going to have a fit."

"Who's this colonel, Martha?" Jack leaned in to ask.

"Oh, nobody. It's just his daughter's recital was yesterday, and he can't figure out what happened that he missed it."

They talked for a bit longer. "I'm sorry I couldn't do anything, Jack," Martha said, sounding genuinely upset.

"Hey," Jack said warmly. "Just gives me a chance to play the dashing hero."

"I'll bet," Martha laughed. "Owen told me you couldn't remember a thing."

"Did he?" Jack turned in his seat to give Owen a speculative look. Owen just raised his eyebrow.

"Do we need to come in and do a bit more cleanup?" he asked at last.

"You're taking down the network?"

"Already on it."

"Only if you want to come in and scare the pants off of everyone. I think this was half a test to see what they could do with Archangel. If that's gone... I can take care of it," she finished. Ianto was sure they'd be keeping a suspicious eye on UNIT for a while regardless. Martha promised to come down for New Year's, and rang off.

"Well," Ianto spoke into the quiet that followed. "That was uncharacteristically anticlimactic."

"Anyone need to do some last minute shopping?" Jack asked.

In the end, they elected not to leave right away -- in part because Jack did want to make sure that this didn't happen again, and in part because Gwen took him up on the offer.

\----------

Roofs were popular places these days, it seemed. Ianto had gone up to UNIT's roof to think, and found Martha up there. At first, he'd thought she was alone, and then he realized she was speaking to Owen. Neither of them noticed he was there, and he turned again to leave.

"I know I should have said something, or tried to stop it, but I just -- I hoped they were right, that it would mean nothing would happen, and then he wouldn't show up."

"Who?" Owen asked. Ianto thought he knew, even though Owen didn't seem to. Why was Martha talking to Owen about this? "An ex?"

"Not quite," Martha said, waving her hand around in a manner that clarified nothing. "I just -- I love him, but it hurts every time I see him."

"Well bugger that," Owen said, though his voice wasn't harsh. "You love him, you see him while you have the chance. People don't stick around as much as you want them to."

"I don't really think that's true with him."

Owen made a noise of dissent. Ianto knew he should have left, but he couldn't bring himself to move. "Life is what happens when you're busy planning other things, right? I know it sounds stupid, but take what you can get. If I could go back in time five years and --" he stopped. "Well, I'd probably not be able to help myself and create a paradox or whatever, but still... the point is I would, and I can't. So do it while you can."

It was times like this that Ianto wished Owen's background file wasn't missing sheets, with a sticky note on the inside flap that read 'fuck off, ~~Suzie~~ Ianto.'

"You should tell Jack, you know. He'll understand."

"That's kind of the problem."

He left quietly, more pieces clicking into place.

\----------

It was late when they did finally make it back to Cardiff, and Ianto got wrapped up in catching up on the work he'd neglected the past week -- insignificant by anyone else's standards, but not his -- and Jack managed to sneak up on him.

"So, Ianto Jones," Jack said, dropping his hands on Ianto's shoulders, "how does it feel to know that you saved Christmas?"

"Jack," Ianto protested mildly, leaning back against him, "I hardly did it single-handedly."

"Still," Jack said, dropping a kiss on the top of his head. "Look, it's Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas, Ianto." The clock on his monitor said 12:01, and the CCTV footage of the Plass, once again decorated in full seasonal regalia, showed the rest of the team leaving for the night -- Gwen hurrying to her car, Tosh and Owen walking closely down towards the bay, heads bent toward each other.

"Merry Christmas, Jack."

END

  



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